


The Holidays | Qrowinfest 2018

by drunkdragon



Category: RWBY
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M, Fluff, Qrowinfest, connected chapters, individual rating for each piece may vary, non-descript holiday, prompts, winter holidays
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-17 10:23:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 6,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16972794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drunkdragon/pseuds/drunkdragon
Summary: My prompts for Qrowinfest 2018! Not much more to say besides each prompt attempts to build an overall story across them, so reading in chronological order is recommended.





	1. Bonus Day 1: Gingerbread Cookies/Houses

When she was growing up, the only gingerbread houses Winter ever encountered were the ones that were set up by her father. The structures were elegant and massive, taking up a whole corner in the already gigantic hall. She distinctly remembered stepping over the velvet rope and walking through the fake snow to get to the gingerbread house door. Slipping inside, her mind raced back to the old fairy tale, the one where the two children stumble on a witch’s house that was made of candy.

She dared to take a bite, only to realize that while the walls were indeed made of gingerbread, that the frosting and gumdrops were real, everything had gone stale and was completely inedible. She learned that, while beautiful, they were only meant to be displayed.

* * *

Winter’s next most memorable moment with gingerbread houses was when she was in the army. For whatever reason, the brass saw it fit provide some gingerbread house sets to the soldiers, one per group of four. She wasn’t one for participating, but she found that she was spending a good amount of time looking at the completed projects of her fellow comrades.

A few of them were parodies of war. Festive ‘soldiers’ with flimsy gumdrop pistol cutouts wearing the iconic red hats with the white bob at the end, drawn on by red and white icing. But most of them were about family, human-shaped pieces standing next to each other, hands held together by gluey frosting.

Still not edible, however. While the kits were recently purchased and smelled mostly fresh, they were touched by a multitude of hands. They were unsanitary. Soldiers were in the mud, fighting and touching materials that were sometimes better left unmentioned. Even though she saw a few of her peers snacking on the spare pieces, it wasn’t worth the risk.

* * *

Dinner hadn’t started yet in the Xiao Long household. The traditional cut of meat, a hunking slab of perfectly seasoned roast beef that threatened to put her father’s showboating to shame, was still in the oven. Qrow told her that they’d probably end up finishing it on the next day, and with the ravenous appetite of a hunter family, she didn’t doubt it. But while her stomach growled impatiently at the smell of roasting meat, Qrow had walked in through the front doors, carrying three boxes.

“Alright, kiddos!” his nickname for Ruby and Yang still stuck, even though they were well into the adult range by now. “Guess what time it is!” Ruby had dashed in first, almost ripping the boxes from his hands and putting it onto the coffee table in front of the TV. In a blur, the boxes were already open, just in time for Yang to take a seat and start looking at the ingredients in front of them.

And the first thing they both did was eat one of the pieces. Originally uninterested, Winter found herself following their motions like a hawk, watching as they worked together to start laying the foundation as they ate the gumdrops.

“It’s tradition,” Qrow sidled up next to her on the couch, gently wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “The two of them loved to do these when they were small, and still do.”

“Do we really need three boxes of these, though?”

“Right, well,” there was a smile on his face, clearly recounting a memory. “There was one year where they ended up eating too many pieces and didn’t have enough to make an actual house. Wasn’t the end of the world, and it’s kinda funny when I look back at it. But at the time they looked so sad when they realized they didn’t have enough.”

“So next year you started buying more sets.”

“Yep. Although,” she watched as Ruby snatched up her eighth gum drop. Winter wasn’t about to bet on her drinking the frosting, but… “I’ve since tried to get some of the bigger kits when I could.”

Leaning forward, he grabbed one of the smaller pieces, one that she was sure the other two wouldn’t miss, and took a bite. He then offered it to her, and she grabbed it without hesitation.

Crunchy, a little sweet. The mildest kick of spicy.

It might never match up to the displays of the father or the wild imaginations of soldiers. But it had something that none of them could ever obtain.

It was, for all its plain simplicity, delicious, and thus immediately memorable.


	2. Day 1: Family Feast

“Plum pudding? I thought you said you couldn’t cook.”

The smirk on Winter’s face as she leaned against the doorframe was one of victory, as if she had finally caught him in the act. Qrow turned back to the stove. “It’s called a hunter’s pudding, actually. Doesn’t always have plums,” he said as he put the finishing touches on the wet dough. “And I still can’t. Aside from macaroni and cheese and general basics, this is the only other thing I ever learned to make.”

“Hm.” She gave a small nod and walked closer, daring to look over his shoulder. “Hard to imagine that this hulking mess is going to become the centerpiece after the main course.”

“It’s a respected tradition of our household, and the only contribution that I’m allowed to make in the kitchen.” Qrow still remembered the last time he tried to bake cookies for the nieces when they were only up to his knees. He was sure Tai still did, too.

“But why pudding, though? Aren’t these hard to make?”

“Not really,” he laid out a floured piece of wet linen, transferring the dough to the very center before wrapping it up and tying it with a string. “Just time consuming. But the good news is that all that’s left is to just boil it.”

“For three hours.”

Qrow sighed. “For three hours.”

She clicked her tongue. “You still didn’t answer my question.”

“It’s... ” he found himself trailing off, thinking back to the first time he saw it being made - in a giant steel pail, held atop a heap of coals in the Mistral woods. “It’s tradition I grew up with, you could say. Hunters would take this with them when preparing for a…” Qrow struggled to describe the situation, “A special hunt. And when we began to live our new lives, this was all I really knew how to make.”

His shoulders drop, head tilting forward. “The first Winter Festival where it was just us four was... unfulfilling.” There was no better word for it, and he felt Winter’s hand curl into his as he continued to speak. “So partway through the holidays I made this. I knew it would never fill in the gap that was left behind, but it was enough for them.”

He would never forget the way Ruby and Yang’s eyes lit up when they saw the foreign object, or how they wanted a second plate after scarfing down their first. Or the way Tai cried and thanked him after the girls had gone to bed, saying that earlier he was so scared for the holiday season and what it would entail.

Winter took a deep breath, eyes closed. “... And when you say a  _ special _ hunt, do you-”

He shook his head, and she stopped. But he licked his lips and found that he kept talking. “It’s a lot of calories in a dense package, but it’s a bit of a sweet treat. Given how we were in the middle of the Mistral wilderness, processed items like sugar were rare. Anything sweet usually came from mixing dried fruits. And we all knew that there was the risk of not returning to camp, so we’d reach down and a bit of sugar or anything sweet to make this as a bit of a parting gift. Good luck, if you believe in that.”

She rested her head against his shoulder. “Like last rites, almost?” her voice was a whisper, ensuring that only he heard her words.

“.. Yeah, you could say that.”

“Does Tai know?”

“Probably. He knows about Raven and me, and I’m pretty sure she would have told him anyway at some point.”

Winter paused, looking down at her feet and then up into his eyes. “...And the girls?”

He sniffed and shook his head, blinking. “The girls love this. I… I can’t burden them with that bit of me.”

Winter wrapped her hands around him, pulling him into a slow and tight hug. “They’ll understand, Qrow. You’re not that type of person anymore, and I imagine that you haven’t been ever since you went to Beacon.”

He was sure they would, and that was what scared him. The Branwen Tribe was just a name to them, after all. No weight behind the seven letters. Just the image of people living off the grid.

* * *

When it was time to finally bring out the pudding, Yang and Ruby were ecstatic. For all his other culinary disasters, the two of them were already lining up their plates for Qrow to dole out a slice. The moment he was done serving them and sat back down again, though, Winter never let go of his hand until it was time to clear the table.

And when he really thought about it, the girls probably knew that the Branwen Tribe hunted more than just game and Grimm. It might just not have fully clicked with them yet.

* * *

_ “Never forget - I fell in love with the man you are now, not who you were before. And I’ll keep telling you that until you believe it.” _

_ “... Thank you.” _


	3. Day 2: Open Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note - contains mild smut after the [][][]. However, there is no story significance to it, so feel free to skip it as needed :)

**** They didn't  _ need _ a fire at the time, but Taiyang insisted that popcorn prepared over an open flame was the best way to have it. It was a miracle that any of them had room for even more food after dinner, but they slowly picked at it as they lazed the evening away. But it wasn't until Ruby nearly tipped over from her seat on the floor that they all decided to call it a night.

Winter decided to let Qrow shower first. Whether he knew it or not, it seemed to always perk him up after a rough spot, and she was more than happy to let him take the moment of reprieve. Naturally, though, this meant that her own shower took place later, when the rest of the Xiao Long household was tucked well away into their own rooms and corners.

Drying herself off and stepping out of the bathroom, she ventured a peek into the living room, seeing if Qrow had moved since he finished washing up. To her dismay, though, he hadn’t moved much, simply stuck on the couch staring endlessly into the bright but dying flame of the fireplace.

Perhaps a talk or something else was in order. She hadn’t meant to drudge up that bit from his past, so on some level she felt that she was obligated to at least try and improve the situation. But with the house getting cold and her hair still just a tiny bit wet, she needed to improvise. Grabbing one of the thicker blankets from the guest bed they were supposed to share, Winter softly wrapped it around herself and strode into the room.

(She made sure to snag an unused gumdrop from the remaining gingerbread house pieces, though.)

“So, Blake and Weiss arrive tomorrow.” She calmly said as she gently took a seat next to him. “Are you ready for the more annoying version of me, as you once put it?”

To her surprise, Qrow put on a good-natured smile and scoffed a tiny bit. ”Honestly, Winter, I’m more scared of the surprise ‘friend’ she’s bringing.”

“It can’t be that bad.”

“What if she brings a boyfriend or girlfriend?”

Considering how Weiss hadn’t mentioned any of that to her she doubted it but played along. “Whoever it is would have a whole slew of hunters going after them if they made a mistake, so I’m not all that worried in the end.” She took a deep breath and looked down at the hands on his lap, and continued. “I am, however, worried about you.” 

His stomach rose as the cooling air coursed through his chest. “Just thinking about… you know.” His head gestured towards the kitchen. “The pudding thing. I’m trying to figure out how to tell my nieces its deep dark secret. So far, though, I’ve got nothing.”

“You don’t have to have an answer right now, Qrow.” She tucked her legs under the blanket, shielding them from the cold. “You have a whole year until your next try.”

“Not wrong there,” he said as his head fell back against the couch. “I’ll figure it out later, I guess. Sorry for worrying you like that.”

“It’s fine.” She leaned in to kiss his cheek and his red eyes closed. His hand rose up around the blanket, cradling her shoulders through the fabric. “I don’t think either of us was going to expect something like that on tonight of all nights.”

“Yeah, it just sort of happened.” He returned the kiss, planting it on top of her head. After that, though, was silence. The house was still - perhaps everyone else had already fallen asleep for the night.

[][][]

Winter decided that now was her chance. Taking one last breath, she moved her legs to crawl over him. With the smoothest movement she could muster she parted the blankets, her hands holding the ends and letting it settle on top his shoulders to wrap themselves up under the thick and warm cloth. And in the process, she let the the blanket gently dip down a bit past her shoulders, letting her bare skin become veiled in the fire’s orange glow.

More importantly, it revealed to him that she was entirely naked underneath the covers. His chest swelled again, hidden by only a thin undershirt of his own. “Well now,” his voice was low as he felt out the words on his lips. “Feeling spontaneous, are we?”

A thin blush rose to her cheeks, but she smirked through it. “What else would it be?”

“... Succor comes to mind, but I don’t think I fully agree with the term.”

She leaned closer, looking down on him from her seat in his lap. “Am I not allowed to seduce my husband?”

His hands traced up her shoulders. He began to gently pull the blanket back into place around her, but changed his mind and decided to let it lie where it was. “Hmph, well,” a single hand moved to her neck before he traced his finger down, between her breasts and settling low between her legs. “You always were a naughty girl.”

Her body shivered and she leaned in close, her voice ghosting over his ears. “I blame my father. Never liked listening to him, so I stopped in the end.”

Finally, he moved, his other arm slipping around her hips and pulling her close. “You know, Winter, this was the last thing I had on my mind tonight.” He kissed her cheek. “Still kind of is.” But his hand dragged back and forth, pulling out a slow sigh from her. “But it is enticing, however.”

“Well,” she let her body rest against his, back arching just the tiniest as he pushed a finger into her. “We don’t have to do the full thing.” Carefully tucking one of the blanket ends behind his shoulder, her free hand traveled down his shirt, resting against the seat of his pants. “But my sister and Blake are joining us for the rest of the holidays. Probably won’t get another chance until we get back to our own place.”

He clicked his tongue. He let his head fall a little to the side, but she could hear the smile in his voice. “Quite a mighty incentive there, though I do have a question. Given tonight’s events, is this considered the same as drowning my pain in excessive alcohol?”

“Well, alcohol, Qrow,” she took a deep breath as his fingers went deeper, “doesn't try to get you off.” Her own hand slipped past his waistband, grasping his hot flesh and feeling harden beneath her fingertips, “So, are you up for the full deed then?”

He kissed her, a soft groan coming up from his lips and down hers. “Yeah, but stay on the couch. The guest bed creaks and if anyone hears us, this household will never stop making fun of us for it.”

She ducked down to lick his neck, her hand moving in a slow and steady rhythm over his member. She felt it grow slick and wet near the top and she shot him her best knowing grin.“You could always just blame me. Naughty girls are the ones that get into trouble, right?”

He kissed her neck, another finger slipping inside. “And throw you under the bus? Never.”


	4. Day 3: Scarf

**** Qrow made sure that Yang and Ruby didn’t eat all of the leftovers from last night. Blake and Weiss were probably going to want something for when they finally arrived, and if what his nieces said were true about them playing up the roast beef, they were going to want to try some of it later.

“They’re late,” Winter said as she stared out through the window. A gentle snow had begun to fall, but it was expected to become heavier tomorrow.

“Rare as they are, even Patch experiences the occasional snowstorm every now and then,” he sidled next to Winter, sharing her stare out into the white expanse. “I don’t think it’s expected to last very long, so it’s probably fine. Besides, isn’t Atlas colder?”

She closed her eyes, shoulders rising with her breath. “That is true. Perhaps I’m worrying more than I need to.” Tearing herself away from the the window, she made her way to the center of the living room. “I believe Tai mentioned that it was time for presents - is that correct?”

“Yeah, we’re about to start soon.” The Xiao Long tradition was that prior to the holiday, they would determine who would be giving who a present. Everyone picked out one person that they wanted to give a present to, with the youngest picking first. They would pick a person, that person would pick another person, and so on and so forth until the last one to remain ends up picking a gift for the youngest. While this meant that there was a smaller amount of presents given, it allowed each participant to really look and try to come up with something that was perfect for the person.

It was also a holdover from when money was tighter. Yang and Ruby deserved everything after the harsh hand life dealt them and he and Tai did their best, but it creative concessions had to be made. As a side effect, though, it was scaleable - each new person to the tradition was easy to incorporate into the circle. Factoring in Winter, Weiss, and Blake was simple.

The special friend though? Not so much - but Qrow was sure they would figure something out.

Eventually, everyone gathered into the center of the living room. The nieces took the couch, Tai was cross-legged on the floor, and Qrow and Winter had taken refuge on the    
(“Haha, veeery funny, everyone. I bet you’re all just jealous.”) loveseat. The only thing left was to settle who went first.

To this, Winter raised her hand, taking clear initiative to start the round off. Walking to the corner of the room, she pulled out her present from the stack, a long but flat beige-colored box adorned with a white ribbon.

She presented it to him. “This is for you, Qrow.”

“Do I get to shake it?”

“No.”

Chuckling, he gently took a hold of the box, slowly undoing the ribbon and letting it fall to the side. Lifting the top off, he was greeted with a cloth the color of coal. He looked up at her with a smirk. “Not red?”

“Black complements your overall style a little more, particularly your hair. More importantly, though,” Winter tugged at his cape, “it won’t clash with this.”

Pulling out the scarf, he noticed that it was a little thin. The material, however, was very fine, silky even, and he began to wrap it around himself. Or tried to.

He could hear Winter’s eyes roll. “I’ll show you how to do it later.”

Fair enough. Giving a thank you kiss to her cheek, it was time for him to give a present to Yang. “Guess it’s my turn then.” Slowly rising from the couch, he began to pick up his gift box, but a knock on the door caused everyone to pause.

“I got it I got it!” Ruby stood up immediately, dashing over to the door in a flurry of roses. Throwing it open without a care to the cold weather, she suddenly turned stock still.

“Salutations!”

“... _ PENNY?? _ ”


	5. Day 4: Pie

**** So far, Qrow seemed relatively unperturbed for all the questions he was being bombarded with.

“So... what’s this?”

“That’s sugar. We’re going to need some of it for dessert.” 

“And what’s dessert?”

“We’re going to bake a pie.”

“Oh, well, Mr. Branwen, I meant ‘what’s a dessert?’”

Weiss had said that Penny was lent to her on special permission, well ahead of research schedule. Fielded to Dr. Polendina and his company as a tech test, the idea was that they would test her learning and social capabilities and overall functionality, something that was lacking from her first iteration. But then this meant that her overall knowledge bank was much smaller than anticipated at the time. She knew what most general objects were, but anything specific was still out of her realm.

Ruby herself didn’t seem to care too much about it, though. Penny would have been tackled into the snow if she wasn’t a robot capable of stabilizing herself so quickly.

But as Winter watched him work through the girl’s questions, exhibiting patience and doing his best to provide a proper response. There was a quality she hadn’t seen in him before. Or perhaps only heard of, or knew that it existed but was never exhibited.

She had seen some of it with his nieces, but they were old enough to make their own decisions and choices. Seeing him work with someone who was essentially a child at heart was something different.

“I got the peaches!” The front door opened again to reveal Yang and Blake with a small basket between them piled high with the fruit.

Penny looked to Qrow again. “What’s a peach?”

“It’s a fruit - plants grow them and we get to eat them,” Qrow said as he moved to take the basket from Yang. Gently pulling one out, he gently held it out in front of her, and she took it. “Usually it’s a summer fruit, but Patch’s peaches are known to grow sprout them all year long since.”

Winter swore that she could hear chips and motors hum, transmitting signals to each other as Penny examined the object. Still holding the fruit, she looked at Qrow. “So… what will we do with these?”

“Well, now that we have our peaches, we’re going to cut them up so everyone else can make the pie. Oh, and a pie is a dessert that is baked with fruit pieces inside it. It’ll make more sense later.”

“But we have to cut it up first, right?”

“Yep.”

The girl perked up “I can do that!” Extending her hand, she held the peach up in front of her with one hand on its bottom. From her back, a single knife flew forward into the air and began to slice and dice away at the fruit.

It would have been a perfect job had it not been for the fact that she had also cut up the pit inside of it. “Hey - nice job there, but we skipped a few steps first. Come on over here. I’ll show you how to do it right.”

Eager to learn more, Penny quickly took a place by him at the sink, watching as he washed and prepared the fruit for cutting, and being sure to tell her to remove the pit first before any additional cuts.

Winter would help out in a moment, she told herself. But for now, she wanted to see this side of Qrow Branwen for a little bit longer.


	6. Day 5: String/Christmas Lights

**** “What do you mean the lights are out?” It was such an innocent question that Qrow almost regretted asking. Almost.

“Well, it’s as I said,” Yang shrugged, “the string lights are out and our glowy snowman is missing a torso.”

“Ugh, again? It happened last year, too!” Ruby sounded more dejected than her sister, which then led to Penny bombarding her with questions about string lights and why decorations are made and what the heck a snowman has anything to do with the winter season and if the nose was edible and then Yang got called into the kitchen and-

He sighed. “I’ll go see if I can fix it.”

Winter snapped a look at him. “It’s really starting to snow though. Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“It’ll be an easy job,” he shrugged as he moved toward the front. “Or should be.”

“Qrow, you’re not even wearing a sweater.”

“Don’t worry, Winter,” he winked at her as he opened the door. “I got your scarf on.” Walking outside, he let the chill wrap around him as he moved to the front, examining the lights on the house. Having been the one to set it up almost all of it, he was the one who knew which string lights were going through which series of wires.

Naturally, Winter worried. Only seconds later, she was out of the house, bundled up in her own thick coat and heavy boots. Her hood was up, gently covering her hair and ears from the wind. In her hands was his own coat and she was beginning to follow after him.

But it wasn’t necessary - not because it wasn’t cold, but for the same reason why he was the one to put up the lights. With a roll of his neck, he felt his magic channel through him and his bones gently bend and fold. In a blink of an eye, he was a bird again. The black feathers and plumage were more than enough to keep the cold at bay.

He carefully snuck a glance at Winter, who was silently fuming. He’d apologize for it later, but for now he had a job to do. Stretching his wings, he took to the sky and started to view the problem from above. As Yang had said, the lights for the snowman were out. Those wires were going through a loop that was down the side of the chimney stack and into the outlet from there, and that’s where he would start.

The next five minutes were mostly diligent work. Flapping back and forth between the corners and the sky, a few transformations here and there, and soon enough the lights were back on. And all the while Winter watched him. Her gaze seemed to never change, never falter. Only when he was finally finished with the task did she respond, and only when landed in front of her.

_ Caw _

Crossing her arms, Winter gave a long sigh and she threw the coat over his bird form. For a moment white turned to darkness. But he pecked and picked his way out, and when the light came back she was still in front of him, her own little smile on her lips. Not even she was immune to crafting her own little bits of teasing now and then.

With their bought of immaturity over, Qrow gently took off again, first flying past her before swooping back to gently settle down onto her shoulder. He instinctively nudged against her cheek, only to be rebuffed by the hood over her face. Undeterred, however, he began to gently move to the edge of her shoulder.

“Fine, fine,” Winter stretched out her arm, letting him shuffle all the way down to the end. Then just as slowly, she curled back, putting her other hand around his form as she held him close to her chest. “You’re very lucky that I enjoy this as much as you do.”

Qrow would have thanked and said that he loved her, but he was just a bird right now, so-

_ Caw _

“I love you too.”

Tracing her steps back into the house, Winter gently removed her coat, careful to not disturb him too much. She set herself down onto the loveseat once more, and her arms once again moved to cradle him. Then in a gentle rhythm her lithe fingers began to trace its way down from his head to the back of his neck.

For a moment he trembled like he always did, but each subsequent stroke was more comforting than the first, and he let his eyes close.

Warm and right next to her bosom. Heaven had come to visit his soul once again.

He’d get his jacket later. It could wait.


	7. Day 6: Blizzard

**** By the time Winter finally shooed Qrow off of her lap, the snow had nearly covered up his jacket outside. A quick dash in and out was able to salvage it, however, and she brushed off the snow that had built up on it. As she reached for the door handle, though, she felt herself pause and look at the weather. A few more degrees colder, and it would have been just like Atlas.

For better or for worse.

When she entered back into the house, she recalled how easy it was for Qrow to see that her demeanor had changed just the slightest. He once described to her that when she was feeling upset or contemplative, her forehead would crease just the slightest and she had a habit of crossing her arms.

Looking down at herself, her arms had indeed crossed themselves, and she huffed. Tai had called them all into the dining room for the next meal (a smaller course compared to the big dinner prior, thank goodness), but the moment Qrow locked eyes with her he had already seen the shift.

* * *

“Hey.”

The wind howled outside the four corners of the guest bedroom. And while Winter wouldn’t blame them for keeping her awake, she found herself listening to the gale.

“I know you’re awake.”

She was tempted to keep her eyes shut and turn over, but Qrow would keep talking until she made some kind of response. He knew that she wasn’t asleep yet because he stated that she had the habit of stealing the blanket while sleeping.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Finally, she sighed, and it felt louder than any storm would ever bring up. “Honestly, there’s not much left to say that hasn’t been said.”

“...Dad stuff?”

“I’m long done with him. It’s… Atlas stuff, actually.” She finally turned herself towards him, digging herself deep into his shoulder. “I saw the snow and… for a moment, well…”

“Right, sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She blinked a few times. “It was the right thing to do in the end.”

“Did Jimmy give you any update on the appeal? Or anything from Whitley?”

She took a deep breath. “He… He said that he’s been following up but the contact hasn’t responded in some time. And Whitley said that Father had some friends in the right places, so...”

His arm wound tightly around her, and she let herself relish the contact. “You might be considered a disgrace over there, but that means nothing here.”

She still remembered the day she did it. News of her more overt involvement with Qrow and, by proxy, Ozpin had started to spread to the wrong channels. And soon, someone had reached out to her father and convinced him to side with Salem. Winter didn’t believe in magic until then, and by the time she found it, she knew what had to be done. For herself, for Weiss, even Whitley.

As she fled from Atlas, memories of blood still fresh on her mind, all she could think of was the snow from the blizzard they ran through. It was all Qrow told her to focus on. Think of the snow - not of its harsh and abrasive nature, but of its beauty and purity.

With some quick thinking and pulling strings with the Belladonna family, she was able to escape from Atlas. A public statement was made by the White Fang on behalf of Menagerie, acknowledging that while they did not condone patricide, they recognized that she had brought down a longtime oppressor and granted her asylum.

But Atlas? It was a land that she might never set foot in again for some time.

At least she didn’t feel like crying this time, and having Qrow nearby helped.


	8. Day 7: Gift

Finally, after a few more days, the holidays came to an end. Weiss had to return Penny to Dr. Polendina and Blake would return to Menagerie. Ruby and Yang had an assignment together that started soon in Vale proper, so they had to take the next flight out to get there in time. None of the four would know when they would all meet up again, but they all promised that they would, so that meant it was going to happen.

Qrow and Winter, however, stayed for one more day before returning to their own side of the island, helping get the house ready for one more event. Tai said that they didn’t have to stay, but the both of them insisted. Together, they seen both the best and worst in family, and for what was planned, they wanted to be there.

To be honest, neither of them were sure how it would go for Tai. The blizzard had passed, but that wasn’t what they were afraid of. If anything the blizzard might have been preferable, but he was steadfast in his goal. And so in the end they decided that they would be there with him.

But it looked like everything was going according to plan. While Penny was unexpected, the children (they weren’t really children anymore, but it was a habit that refused to die) were on their way home, meaning that the other guest was now clear to arrive.

* * *

The silence in the house was deafening in comparison to the noise that was in it not even a day ago. But that was all there was until there was a knock at the door. With a final breath, Tai stood up and moved to open it. With one last pause, he pushed the door open and grew stiff.

“Hello Raven. Come on in.”

With Salem done and dealt with, there was no more need for Raven to keep herself separate from Tai or the rest of the family anymore. But the scars were still there. Qrow was unsure if it would be a good idea, and Winter herself wondered if it was even something she could speak upon. And it would have been the end of the world had Yang found out. But in the end, both conceded that it if Tai felt that it was something worth pursuing, then as friends and family they would be there for him.

She looked older than when she made an appearance in the final battle, catching Salem’s forces off guard. But she had the luxury of her mask at that time. Here, where it was just her, everything came into view. And with her back against the white backdrop of snow, she seemed small for once in a long time.

Her eyes scanned the house, as if checking for traps and memories, both one in the same. But finally she stepped through the doorway, gently setting her sword down.

And with that, it was time to eat. It would be an early supper - a thick and hearty soup and freshly baked bread. One of her favorites, actually. Qrow and Winter put it together as Tai was starting to get a little nervous. The dinner conversation they had was a little strained. They had all promised that they would avoid the hard conversation for now and simply enjoy a meal together. There would be time for that later.

It was after the meal was completed when things got complicated. Perhaps uncomfortable with being treated as if nothing was wrong, Raven had offered to help with cleaning the table. Not wanting to cause a conflict, they did. But as she started to wash the dishes, seeing things that had changed, family photos without her in it but someone else, she froze up.

Winter was the one to speak up. “Raven? Are you doing alright?”

“Thank you for letting me have this gift,” she stated, “But… I think I need some time alone right now.”

* * *

In the end, she had stepped outside. But her sword was still in the house, so Tai wasn’t worried. And while it was cold, Raven has proven her resilience time and time again in many ways. A bit of cold air wouldn’t do her in.

And Qrow and Winter still weren’t sure if this was the best idea in the end. Raven had once threatened him, after all. But times and circumstances change, and it wasn’t a reality the two of them had to be worried about anymore. Especially not tonight.

And so while it was a gift for her, so it was a gift for themselves as well.


End file.
